Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: Tunnel Hunt
Tunnel Hunt was created in 1981 by Centuri and was licensed by Atari for use in arcades. The gameplay was rather dull and consisted of moving a crosshair around the screen to shoot enemies coming at you from the distance. These enemy ships bear a striking resemblance to Darth Vader's Tie Fighter and the farther away they are when you shoot them, the more points you would get. The ships would fire missiles at you that you would then have to blow up before they made impact with your "ship". But don't think you can just hold the fire button down and blast everything that comes at you. Your lasers have a meter and can overheat causing you to be unable to fire for a few seconds until they cooled down again.
All this action packed excitement took place on a background of strobing concentric squares that gave one the illusion of going through a long tunnel, hence the name, Tunnel Hunt. The cabinet was also built out on the sides and top creating a sort of blinders effect that added to the tunnel illusion. All in all, not a very interesting game. The flyer on the other hand is another matter...
This image just reeks of all kinds of saucy sexual overtones. I can't imagine exactly what they were thinking when drawing this one up, but surely there was no mistake or confusion, they knew exactly what they were doing. The depths of space, indeed! The back of the flyer only adds to that theory with quotes like:
Grab the four way joystick and get ready for the fight of your life. Acceleration is automatic, but keep your course. Hit the walls of the space tunnel and you'll lose speed.
Replace a few words in that sentence and you've got the beginnings of a fantasy letter to Playboy. Although I guess in this case it would be more like Mandate.
[flyer courtesy TAFA]
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